Curry guides league-leading Warriors to 7th straight win

Point guard Stephen Curry scored 27 points and dished out 11 assists in just 29 minutes to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 116-105 victory over the Utah Jazz.

The Warriors won their seventh consecutive game, the team’s secondlongest winning streak of the season, and extended their leaguebest record to 305.

Although Tuesday night’s game at EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City was closely fought at the beginning and tied at halftime, the Warriors exploded for 44 points in the third quarter to take a 9780 lead and cruised to the finish line.

Curry, who made four of his nine 3point attempts and is getting more attention as an MVP candidate with each passing game, had 15 points and four assists in the third quarter alone.

The Warriors made just over 50 percent of their shots from the field but they had an off night defensively, allowing the Jazz to shoot 48 percent.

Curry’s backcourt mate, Klay Thompson, pitched in with 12 points in just under 27 minutes of play, while forward Draymond Green had 15 points in 24 minutes and Harrison Barnes scored 12 points in just under 23 minutes.

No player on the Warriors’ roster played 30 minutes against the Jazz, as head coach Steve Kerr looked to avoid overusing players on a week his team plays four games in five nights.

Derrick Favors led the way for the Jazz with 22 points and all of the other Utah starters scored in double figures, but the home squad’s bench was outscored 4126.

With the win, the 49yearold Kerr, who won five NBA championships as a player as a member of the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs, became the only firstyear head coach in NBA history to post a 305 record through his first 35 games.

The Warriors, who won 16 straight games earlier this season, will seek their eighth consecutive win when they take on the Miami Heat at home on Wednesday night. They then play road games against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday and the Houston Rockets on Saturday.

In other action Tuesday around the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers got LeBron James back from a twoweek injury layoff but lost their sixth straight game in a 107100 defeat to the Phoenix Suns.

The Minnesota Timberwolves topped the Indiana Pacers 110101, the redhot Atlanta Hawks trounced the lowly Philadelphia 76ers 10587, the Washington Wizards surprised the defending champion Spurs 10193, the Dallas Mavericks edged the Sacramento Kings 108104, and the Heat squeaked past the Los Angeles Lakers 7875.